HELPING THE WORLD’S PEOPLE STATELESSSTATELESS UNHCR / DIP / Q&A•A4 / ENG 1 SEPTEMBER 2011 In Sri Lanka, the descendants of southern Indians brought to work on coffee and tea plantations in the 19th Century were left stateless for decades after independence from Britain. In 2003, the Sri Lankan parliament adopted a law to grant citizenship to this population, known as the Hill Tamils, and conducted a massive campaign to end their statelessness. In a region of historical labour migration from colonial times, the citizenship status of a significant portion of the population of Côte d’Ivoire has…
